


Portrait of Charles Xavier as a Young Mutant

by unveiled



Series: Snippets [2]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anachronisms, Charles is not a good role model, Epistolary, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-09
Updated: 2011-11-09
Packaged: 2017-10-25 21:12:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/274834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unveiled/pseuds/unveiled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Excerpt from a story filed by M. Wetherell, NYT, 1972, with accompanying photographs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Portrait of Charles Xavier as a Young Mutant

**Author's Note:**

> For mrkinch, who posted [this inspirational set of James McAvoy photos](http://tumblr.com/ZEQAlxBdKVHU). This story is based on those photos, set in a universe where Charles and Raven were born a few years later than in XMFC (at least five years or more).
> 
>  **Warning for period-appropriate prejudices and bigotry**.

_Excerpt from a story filed by M. Wetherell, NYT, 1972, with accompanying photographs_ :  


> [...] Xavier is sometimes said, with varying degrees of scorn, to be the "acceptable" face of the Mutant Liberation Front. He has a singular ability to listen attentively and sympathetically to any given view, which opponents sometimes mistake for submission only to be shocked at the degree to which Xavier shall not be moved.
> 
> The MLF, a child of the civil rights movement and the Gay Liberation Front (Xavier was briefly a member), marries the fiery rhetoric of the Brotherhood of Mutants with the inward-looking agenda of "cognitive liberation". Much like the mutants who make up the coalition, the MLF's manifesto is an odd hodge-podge of political ideologies -- some reflecting its political forefathers -- crammed into a dense and sometimes frankly unreadable document.
> 
> "Quite a bit of it was also inspired by the new UN convention against racial discrimination," Xavier admits. "Angel [Salvadore] and Darwin [Armando Muñoz] worked on incorporating aspects of the convention into the manifesto, though of course we all agreed that government institutions are only one of many concerns.
> 
> "It's overwhelmingly clear that our main focus should be to raise the consciousness of our fellow mutants [in order] to free ourselves from from decaying and oppressive ideologies that continue to constrict our very perception of ourselves. We will never be free until we stop thinking in terms of what we are allowed to do, and instead think of what we can and should do, for all our sakes."
> 
> Yet Xavier rejects the separationist politics of the Brotherhood.
> 
> "The MLF does," he corrects irritably. "It's more accurate to say that we reject their exclusionist view of our shared struggle and regret that they see no point in mutants extending solidarity to other oppressed peoples. However, the MLF rejects as well the old accommodationist and assimilationist movements. If we are to be part of this society, it will be on our terms."
> 
> Xavier buttons up his jacket, sighs, and unbuttons it again in a display of louche sulkiness. His sister, a whirling blue blur in a satin midi, shouts affectionate imprecations at him from the bedroom. The Xavier scions scandalised high society when they declared themselves mutants, shortly following revelations of Charles Xavier's homosexual affairs. The Xaviers' money and influence, neither entirely clean, allegedly soon shifted the focus of public discussion away from his "immoral conduct" to the politically complicated but less personal questions regarding his relationship with members of the Brotherhood.
> 
> "Some of us may well decide that separate mutant communities are the only way to bring us peace," he concedes, slow and deliberate. "I am not a true pacifist. If I am forced to fight, I will, in self-defence. I will not negotiate with a society that continues to oppress us."
> 
> He breaks off and frowns into the mirror. "But for Raven and I to uproot ourselves from human society and buy our own country [...] would be taking the easy way out. It does nothing to solve the cause of why mutants increasingly make up a significant proportion of New York's homeless.
> 
> "Mind you," he says with a grin, "Crashing a fund-raiser for the Human Protection League might turn out to be purely self-indulgent, with no long-term strategic value. Perhaps I will dance in the punch. Or make the honourable senator dance in the punch." [...]


End file.
